Welp, I blew up my engine

[he's gone]

I had been battling a leak at the top of the radiator, but then apparently developed a problem with the hose at the bottom of the radiator. It let loose on all the coolant on a short trip. And just like that, she's done after 250k miles.

I have found a good Toyota engine guy, but wondering if there is anything y'all can add that needs to be done while he's in there.


Choice of engines:
200K miles from a Tundra for $650, auto transmission went out and guy scrapped it

150 something K for $1000, thinks it's from a 2001 4Runner, no word on why it was junked.

The mechanic says he won't deal with just anyone when it comes to this stuff. Guy who recommended him says he's very particular about stuff and 100% a Toyota guy. Wish I had found him before. He seems to be saying just go with the Tundra engine and save 350 bucks, although he did say think it over.

I know way more than your average joe, but my mechanical abilities are limited to little stuff.

What do I need to know about this process?

Edit: Decided to call a shop that does a lot of performance tuning just to check. $3500-4000 for a Jasper or LKQ reman but it has a 3 year warranty. I've read a ton of threads here today that say just go with a used engine but a lot of those were from years ago and mileage and probably availability had to be better, I would think? Really hard to pull the trigger on a 150 or 200K mileage engine.

 

[Spktyr]

Go with a used JDM engine. They are still plentiful and cheap and can be had with warranties.

 

[he's gone]

Go with a used JDM engine. They are still plentiful and cheap and can be had with warranties.

whoa, I saw that but thought they were just another reman shop.

Looking into it now, but how do they find these in japan with such low miles? are they still sold as new over there?

Also, anyone ever use their "name your own price" thing? How much did you knock off?

 

[gamefreakgc]

whoa, I saw that but thought they were just another reman shop.

Looking into it now, but how do they find these in japan with such low miles? are they still sold as new over there?

Also, anyone ever use their "name your own price" thing? How much did you knock off?

JDMs require a lot of donor parts to be moved over since they are different then US engines. The accesories, pulleys and other things are different and your mechanic may charge you extra for the increased work.

Reman'd engines can sometimes have problems since they are sometimes rebuilt with aftermarket parts. Used really are the way to go. Nothing else to really do, except for a full tune-up while the engine is out. Might want to see the condition of the water pump and timing belt before you have it put in.

 

[he's gone]

JDMs require a lot of donor parts to be moved over since they are different then US engines. The accesories, pulleys and other things are different and your mechanic may charge you extra for the increased work.

Reman'd engines can sometimes have problems since they are sometimes rebuilt with aftermarket parts. Used really are the way to go. Nothing else to really do, except for a full tune-up while the engine is out. Might want to see the condition of the water pump and timing belt before you have it put in.

Thanks for the info. I've kept up with the maintenance on this thing pretty good lately but slacked on the radiator due to being broke and not driving much. But at the same time I'm thinking, man that second gear syncro has been a little sticky lately, and the front bumper is smashed where that idiot in a wrangler pulled out in front of me in the snow last winter, and the sunroof won't open, and, and, and,

This is effing stressful, I need a beer ... or seven.

 

[baja1]

don't think you can't do the swap yourself, my '97 had a headgasket failure at 188k, im an old man laying in a dirt field in mexico with a handful of old rusty tools, bought a hoist from harbor fright and a junk yard motor. it took awhile but thanks to the help of T4R I got her all by myself and I was just a sparkplug/oil change guy. hell of a learning experience and really rewarding......good luck!

 

[nissanh]

I have dealt with many toyotas. If you are using a re-manufactured engine, then make sure ALL the parts are Toyota, else don't go in that direction. A good used engine will outlast a remanufactured engine built with non-oem parts. All used toyota engines are cheap as they don't fail as much as any other make. Toyota engines don't easily wear out. Try going into a junk yard and locate a low mile engine and pull it out if you are capable of it or junk yard can find a guy to pull it out for $$.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Go with a used JDM engine. They are still plentiful and cheap and can be had with warranties.

OMG please do a fair amount of research on this before pulling the trigger. There are so many horror stories on this website with JDM and JDM like engines.

JDM, being a 3 char word will not proper show in the "forum search" results. The only way to properly search with a 3 char word is to do a Google site search as documented in the sticky. Best of luck!

If you are using a re-manufactured engine, then make sure ALL the parts are Toyota, else don't go in that direction

As I understand it this is essentially impossible to purchase.

:bat:

 

[jkeith.w]

what's actually wrong with it? blown head gaskets? seized engine?

 

[mtbtim]

I know the damage is already done and I'm probably pouring salt into an open would, but Dude, why didn't you just take care of the radiator issue before it cost you an engine. You could have renewed the radiator, upper and lower hoses, the thermostat and radiator cap and you would have been golden. Regular maintenance and addressing issues before they become big problems is important to the longevity of any vehicle.

I'm sorry for using you as an example but this is why it's super important to watch your gauges while you are driving. You could have caught the temperature gauge rising and quite possibly saved your engine. If you would have been monitoring your coolant temp with either a scan gauge tool or a phone app like Torque Pro pulling info from an OBD II Bluetooth reader, you would have noticed the cooling system problem very quickly and definitely saved your engine.

I hope everything goes well with you engine swap and it doesn't cost you too much coin, but this wasn't just a case of bad luck. It was 100% preventable.

 

[he's gone]

don't think you can't do the swap yourself, my '97 had a headgasket failure at 188k, im an old man laying in a dirt field in mexico with a handful of old rusty tools, bought a hoist from harbor fright and a junk yard motor. it took awhile but thanks to the help of T4R I got her all by myself and I was just a sparkplug/oil change guy. hell of a learning experience and really rewarding......good luck!

If I had someone to make sure I didn't mess it up I would probably do it. But define "it took a while". I could see something like this taking a week, and between kids and being self employed, I'm not sure I can swing it. I don't even have a hard flat surface to wheel a hoist around. I'd have to take over mom's garage, and that's a bad, bad, idea.

what's actually wrong with it? blown head gaskets? seized engine?

they said "#3 cylinder is shot, must be the head gasket." I pressed and asked if they thought it was warped head, etc. He would not answer me and would not even give me a price to crack it open and take a look. It's at the stealership now, and no, I never really had any intention of letting them do the work. Think they were saying 3700 with used engine @ 170K

I know the damage is already done and I'm probably pouring salt into an open would, but Dude, why didn't you just take care of the radiator issue before it cost you an engine. You could have renewed the radiator, upper and lower hoses, the thermostat and radiator cap and you would have been golden. Regular maintenance and addressing issues before they become big problems is important to the longevity of any vehicle.

I'm sorry for using you as an example but this is why it's super important to watch your gauges while you are driving. You could have caught the temperature gauge rising and quite possibly saved your engine. If you would have been monitoring your coolant temp with either a scan gauge tool or a phone app like Torque Pro pulling info from an OBD II Bluetooth reader, you would have noticed the cooling system problem very quickly and definitely saved your engine.

I hope everything goes well with you engine swap and it doesn't cost you too much coin, but this wasn't just a case of bad luck. It was 100% preventable.

I'm glad you brought that up. The top plastic thing was busted, but just shooting out a little coolant depending on how long I drove it. I live in a small town and have not been going anywhere lately. Literally only driving it a few miles at a time. I had it managed.

Saturday I topped it off and took off to the big city 25 miles away, straight shot open highway. I almost made it too. Noticed some knocking so I pulled off the highway. The gauge was not showing hot and the check engine light did not come on like it had once or twice for low coolant.

I sat there for an hour before adding water. Apparently that wasn't long enough because when it went down the hose and hit the engine block, well, lets just say I jumped back real quick. I'm guessing that's where the damage came from?

Waited another half hour or so and limped about a hundred yards to a gas station. There is where I noticed coolant coming out of the bottom of the radiator, definitely not from where it had been leaking previously. I either did not top if off well before leaving town or it all shot out the bottom leak on the drive. Haven't had a chance to look at it since, but the guys in the shop said there was no coolant, so something happened to the radiator outside of the known leak, and the gauge definitely was not reading hot.

 

[sleepydad]

I had been battling a leak at the top of the radiator, but then apparently developed a problem with the hose at the bottom of the radiator. It let loose on all the coolant on a short trip. And just like that, she's done after 250k miles.

I have found a good Toyota engine guy, but wondering if there is anything y'all can add that needs to be done while he's in there.


Choice of engines:
200K miles from a Tundra for $650, auto transmission went out and guy scrapped it

150 something K for $1000, thinks it's from a 2001 4Runner, no word on why it was junked.

The mechanic says he won't deal with just anyone when it comes to this stuff. Guy who recommended him says he's very particular about stuff and 100% a Toyota guy. Wish I had found him before. He seems to be saying just go with the Tundra engine and save 350 bucks, although he did say think it over.

I know way more than your average joe, but my mechanical abilities are limited to little stuff.

What do I need to know about this process?

Edit: Decided to call a shop that does a lot of performance tuning just to check. $3500-4000 for a Jasper or LKQ reman but it has a 3 year warranty. I've read a ton of threads here today that say just go with a used engine but a lot of those were from years ago and mileage and probably availability had to be better, I would think? Really hard to pull the trigger on a 150 or 200K mileage engine.

I just went thru this entire ordeal. I'm in the process of breaking in the re-manned engine. I have put maybe 150 miles on it. I did all the work myself, it was a hella lot of work.

I looked at this way. how much risk do you want and how long are you going to keep your truck? also as you indicated, low millage 5vz are not a thing anymore. sure they might still exist but... I was not able to find one after a month of looking.

In my case I wanted a high quality re-manufactured engine with a warranty, I'm also keeping my truck long term.

I went with a fully dressed engine from yota shop, they have been great so far.

https://www.yotashop.com/toyota-3-4l-5vz-95-04-engine-dressed-long-block-5vz-dlb-9504/

I can't answer to the longevity, but everything seemed to be really excellent from a work quality point of view.

I also put headers on this new engine so it made the install a lot harder, if I have re-used my old stock manifold I would have been done a month ago.

 

[Twisted Sid]

Waited another half hour or so and limped about a hundred yards to a gas station. There is where I noticed coolant coming out of the bottom of the radiator, definitely not from where it had been leaking previously. I either did not top if off well before leaving town or it all shot out the bottom leak on the drive. Haven't had a chance to look at it since, but the guys in the shop said there was no coolant, so something happened to the radiator outside of the known leak, and the gauge definitely was not reading hot.

If there is no coolant to read, the CTS cant do its job and show you it's running hot

 

[SilverRidgeRunner1]

I am kinda curious on the dealer assessment. With what parts that are involved I say replace the hoses and radiator and lets see what happens. Unless u actually know the tech did a cylinder leak down test and isn't actually just saying its on cylinder 3 what do have to loose. I mean u tell the dealer what happened and they guessed it was x y z and never actually did the diagnose just to get few tenths on the ticket etc. I say let do some exploring.

 

[DaMonkey]

.. but how do they find these in japan with such low miles? are they still sold as new over there?

...

Japan has emissions and safety regulations that make it severely punishing to own a car that begins to age at 3 years, 5 years, etc becomes more and more taxing to do inspections and fees. It becomes cheaper to buy a new car than to own a 5 year old car. They also don't drive nearly as much as us. The motors are still in operable condition when the car gets put out to pasture.

Some people think the low miles on JDM are attractive, others think that the owners stop taking care of them as they know they are getting close to the end of their life.

 

[kolelt]

JDM only if you can go and visually see the engine. Otherwise I would never buy a engine of the internet. Because they will posts photos of a clean motor. And send you trash.

 

[Shizzaw]

Japan has emissions and safety regulations that make it severely punishing to own a car that begins to age at 3 years, 5 years, etc becomes more and more taxing to do inspections and fees. It becomes cheaper to buy a new car than to own a 5 year old car. They also don't drive nearly as much as us. The motors are still in operable condition when the car gets put out to pasture.

Some people think the low miles on JDM are attractive, others think that the owners stop taking care of them as they know they are getting close to the end of their life.

I believe this is somewhat inaccurate. Japan has a requirement for ALL cars regardless of age to be inspected and repaired every 2 years (it's called JCI). It doesn't get more expensive for older cars unless more repairs are required. That said, most people find JDM engines to be great because every 2 years a mechanic goes over everything head-to-toe to make sure it will remain road worthy until the next inspection. I currently live in Japan, drive a Hilux Surf and have had to get this inspection done. Mine is considered a high mileage one for Japan at 185,000 km (roughly 110,000 miles) as the Japanese are not near as reliant on vehicles as Americans are. Most Japanese that live in densely populated areas utilize public transportation and that's why their engines remain low mileage. When Japanese buy new cars it mostly because they just want something newer. Not because there is anything wrong with their current vehicle. An example would be my father-in-law (my wife is Japanese). He drove a 2006 Honda CR-V that he purchased new from a dealer. He drove it for 11 years keeping it pristine, then at just over 53,000 km decided to trade it in (for a mere 50,000 yen or about $500) for a 2017 Honda Fit Hybrid. Weird culture but they like having new and shiny things. Waste of money if you ask me. But I would definitely put my trust in a low mileage JDM engine. I'll be bringing my engine back with me when I move to Washington State in a few months.

 

[JWaldz]

Currently in the middle of an engine swap.. If you have some helping hands, access to an engine hoist & lift, sockets and wrenches, then it's doable. It's just tedious work is all, nothing hard. I bought my engine from here in Colorado at a Toyota only yard. Didn't want to deal with a JDM..

 

[pluton]

Reman'd engines can sometimes have problems since they are sometimes rebuilt with aftermarket parts. Used really are the way to go.

ASSUME that all remans are built with inferior parts and poor tolerances. There probably are some properly rebuilt ones out there, but how would anyone know just looking at it?
Of that $3000 for the reman, $1500 is profit. Do you really think anyone can do a good job rebuilding an engine for $1500 parts and labor?

 

[nooch]

I used a JDM importer when I did an engine swap for my first Honda. Engine is completely fine, no issues, was the complete long block and everything.

I even did it with no prior experience in the art. Prior knowledge consisted of suspension work and regular maintenance items (oil, brakes, head gasket replacement, etc.). So it's definitely a consideration if it's not your daily and you have a weekend w/ some tools.